


Suddenly I See

by artificialheart



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: First Crush, Fluff, Haircuts, High School, M/M, Swearing, and one bad dye job, pelican town's most recognizable haircut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 09:29:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17159513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artificialheart/pseuds/artificialheart
Summary: Threatened with the possibility of a terrible home haircut, Sam takes things into his own hands. The origin story of Pelican Town's most recognizable haircut.





	Suddenly I See

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gingertrash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingertrash/gifts).



> Merry Christmas to my very best friend, [LittleRedWrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRedWrites/pseuds/LittleRedWrites). <3 Another fic loosely based off a conversation we had, hope you enjoy!
> 
> This is set in the trio's early teenage years, so no prior knowledge of any of my other works is needed. ;)

“Your hair’s getting too long,” Sam’s mother tells him at the dinner table.

Sam looks up from his plate of pizza, peering at his mom through the long, blond hair that’s grown past his eyes. “But Mom!” he protests. “That’s how I want it to look! It’s… it’s skater-style!”

Jodi sighs. “Sam, you can’t possibly be able to see the chalkboard with all that hair in your eyes all the time.” She leans over to help cut up his little brother’s dinner. “Maybe you’d be doing better in school if you could actually see.”

He stares down at his plate again. Sam didn’t think he was doing _that_ badly in school - sure, he was getting a C in Math and Science - but he had a B in English, and he was even getting an A in History, thanks to all the stuff he’d learned from watching war documentaries with his dad. Music was still his best subject by far, but his mom had argued that it didn’t count, since it was only an elective.

“I’m going to cut your hair this weekend,” his mom decides, and Sam groans.

“Can’t it wait until winter break?” Everyone was gonna laugh at him if he came to school with one of his mom’s at-home haircuts. At least if he waited until the holidays, only Sebastian and Abigail would see it, and then maybe it would grow out before school started again.

“No, Sam. It’ll be down to your shoulders by then! That’s far too much hair for a boy to have.”

Sam wants to argue that _Sebastian_ had long hair (well, only on the one side), but he’d already learned that complaining about what Sebastian’s mom let him do didn’t have any effect on his own mother.

He sighs, and takes another bite of his pizza. He wishes that his mom would’ve told him about the haircut after dinner - pizza just isn’t as enjoyable if you eat it in a bad mood.

* * *

After dinner, Sam waits until his mom’s distracted with the dishes before swiping the kitchen scissors, and locking himself in the bathroom. There was no way he was gonna suffer through another one of his mom’s haircuts. He’s heard that high school is supposed to be the best time of your life, and Sam was definitely not going to have a good time if he spent the next three-and-a-half years being made fun of for his hair.

He frowns at his hair in the mirror, unsure of where to start. His mom always used a bowl to cut his hair, but a bowl cut was the last thing Sam wanted.

Eventually, Sam just grabs a fistful of hair, and starts cutting. It’s a little scary, seeing the sink start to slowly fill up with chunks of his hair, but it’s also super satisfying at the same time. He can’t really cut the back of his head that well, so he decides to just leave it long. Sam remembers seeing old pictures of his dad with short hair on top, and long hair in the back, so it’ll probably look really cool and vintage if Sam did the same thing.

When he’s done with the scissors he grabs some hair gel, hoping that if he spikes his hair up no one will notice how unevenly he’s cut it. He looks sort of like a cartoon character, Sam thinks, as he inspects his new hair-do in the mirror.

Satisfied with his work, Sam retreats to his bedroom to relax for the rest of the night. Sebastian’s online, and Sam joins him for a co-op game of Prairie King. He’s a little nervous, but excited to show Sebastian his new hair tomorrow. They have the day off school, and they’re all meeting up in the Stardrop Saloon for some pool - it’s sort of their Friday tradition.

He’s not really sure why, but lately Sam’s really wanted to impress Sebastian. He figures it’s because Sebastian’s so cool - for his fourteenth birthday, Sebastian’s mom let him dye his hair black. A little of the dye had stained Sebastian’s forehead, but it looked really rad, and Sam was hoping that Sebastian would find his new haircut just as cool.

* * *

His mom doesn’t say much when she sees him the next morning. Her eyes widen as soon as he sits down at the table, and she lets out a quiet “oh, _Yoba_ ,” but he doesn’t get in trouble for cutting his own hair, and that’s all that matters.

At two o’clock Sam pulls on his jacket, and heads over to the Saloon. He waves cheerfully at Gus, who almost drops the pint glass he’s wiping, and Emily, who quickly ducks down behind the counter. It sort of sounds like she’s laughing, but Emily laughs a lot, so Sam’s not too concerned.

“Hi Sam,” Sebastian’s mom greets him as he makes his way over to the arcade, “that’s a very… interesting haircut!”

Sam smiles at her. “Thank you! I cut it myself!”

Robin beams back at him, while Demetrius makes a weird expression. “Very unique,” she continues, “just like Sebby! No wonder you two are such good friends.”

With a stomach full of butterflies, Sam enters the arcade. Abigail’s distracted by the Junimo Cart machine, while Sebastian’s setting up the billiard balls for a round of pool. Sam feels his cheeks heat up when he looks over at Sebastian, for some reason. He quickly brushes it off - it’s just warm in the saloon, that’s all.

“Hey guys!”

Sebastian and Abigail look up at the same time, with matching expressions of shock.

“Dude,” Sebastian says, as Abigail fights back a laugh, “what happened to your _hair_?"

“You look like Goku!” she chokes out, before collapsing over the arcade machine in a fit of giggles.

Sam can feel his cheeks go from pink to red hot. “I cut it,” he says quietly, staring down at his sneakers. “You don’t like it?”

“It’s, uh,” Sebastian trails off, seemingly at a loss for words.

“Well, it’ll always grow back!” Abigail chimes in, once she’s managed to stop laughing.

“It’s not _awful_ ,” Sebastian finally concludes. “I mean, the top’s okay… but it looks like you forgot to cut the back of your hair.”

Sam finally works up the courage to meet Sebastian’s eyes again. “But I did that on purpose!” he explains. “My dad used to get his hair cut like this… it’s vintage!”

“I think some vintage things just need to stay in the past,” Abigail muses. “Like leg warmers.”

Sebastian makes a face. “Bell bottom pants.”

“And mullets,” she finishes, nodding at Sam’s hair. “Mullets definitely should stay in the past.”

“Imagine Lewis with a mullet,” Sebastian suggests, and the three of them laugh at that.

“Maybe you guys could help me cut the back?” Sam asks. “I don’t wanna be made fun of when we go back to school on Monday.”

Sebastian nods. “Yeah, we could do it tomorrow when we have our jam session.”

Abigail rolls her eyes. “Ugh, you guys and your jam sessions. You can’t have a band with just two people in it!”

“Maybe Sam’s mullet will be our third person,” Sebastian teases, and Sam groans. “Hey, at least you have the right hair to be a rockstar now.” He’s smiles at Sam as he says it, and the compliment makes Sam’s heart swell. 

“I wish my mom would let me do something with _my_ hair,” Abigail says, twisting a strand of brown hair around her finger. “I want to dye it purple.”

“You just want to copy me,” Sebastian scoffs.

“No! I’ve always wanted to have purple hair!” she insists. “It’s not my fault you’re the oldest and got to dye yours first!” Sebastian shrugs. “It took me a whole year to convince her to let me wear make-up… ugh, maybe I should just do it myself. What’s she gonna do? Dye it back?”

“Well, yeah,” Sebastian replies. “That’s exactly what she could do. You should do it anyways, though… it’d look cool.”

“Can we play some pool now?” Sam asks, hoping to change the subject.

Sebastian turns his attention back to Sam. “Yeah,” he says, reaching for the cue sticks. “Let’s play, I already got the table set up.”

“Cool,” Sam agrees, as Abigail flops down on one of the sofas to watch.

“You take the first shot,” Sebastian offers, passing him a cue stick. Their fingers brush, and Sam blushes, despite his best efforts not to.

“You sure? You’re better at this than I am.”

“Go for it, Goku,” Sebastian replies with a encouraging smile.

He flubs the shot, somehow managing to miss the cue ball entirely. “Fuck,” he swears. Sebastian laughs, but comes around to the other side of the table, stopping behind Sam.

“Here, try holding it like this,” he says, and it’s in that moment, with Sebastian’s arms around him, that Sam realizes he likes his best friend as more than just a friend. Much more.

_Fuck._

**Author's Note:**

> Poor Sammy. Don't worry, kiddo; it all works out about [7 years later](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10531908/chapters/23252160)...


End file.
